The Dark Ages
by Laharl-demon-cross
Summary: I've been withholding this for years but after the queerat incident in Kamisu 66, I think the world needs to be reminded of what happened during the Dark Ages. (Note: Contains major plot info from Baccano, Darker than Black, Deadman Wonderland and Speed grapher but having read/watched them isn't necessary.) Rated M for language violence and themes. Please review.
1. Prologue

My name is Tachi, the founder of the National Assembly Library. For too many years now, I have wrestled with the idea of disclosing this information. History has shown that humans have trouble learning for their mistakes so I've been reluctant to make this story public but considering the incident with the queerats and the fiend in Kamisu 66, I think it will serve as a helpful reminder. And so, I am writing this with the intent of filling in the gap five hundred year gap in history known as the Dark Ages. I will try to be as accurate with my information as possible but I must make one thing clear; No one really knows how this started. More precisely, no one knows the exact moment that started it all. There are theories and speculation but but they're all baseless and filled with improvised rationals. All anyone can really go by are the people who were there when it happened but most of those people are either dead or in hiding. Even when someone does emerge, the stories tend to be embellished and teeming with iffy third party information. Maybe people just don't want to think about how fast this world went to hell. Or maybe they just don't want to admit that it was their own selfishness and greed that created this hell in the first place, but I digress. The reason why I'm here is to shed a little light on the events that took place here. Now, like I said, I can't give any information outside of what I've witnessed and some speculation of my own. I bet you're wondering what makes me any different from the others who've told this story. The main difference is that I'm not a human. But before I get into myself and my story, I suppose I should start with some background information. I have to apologize in advance for the third party information I'm about to give you but I have no other choice. What I'm about to tell you happened in 2004 which is about 500 years before I was born.

At that time, apparently, humans, normal humans, claimed this world as their own. Also, there were normal animals. There were no no such animals as Balloon Dogs roaming around. That, however, changed when Hell's Gate in Japan and Heaven's Gate in South America appeared. With the gates came the contractors and dolls. Contractors are people with varying superhuman powers. When these powers are activated, the contractor's eyes glow read and, occasionally, their body is surrounded with a blue glow in a phenomenon known as Lancelnoptchrotron radiation and after the power is used, the contractor must perform a compulsory act as a sort of payment for their powers. These acts can vary from eating boiled eggs to breaking one's own fingers. Contractors are created when people are unable to completely become dolls. Dolls are emotionless mediums with the ability to use reconnaissance spirits through various mediums (such as water, glass etc.). Although their existence was kept a secret from the general public, contractors were feared (at least to some degree) by both the societal elites and the criminal underground mostly because of their pragmatic worldview and focus on self preservation which makes them seem either cold and heartless or emotionless. My grandfather thought that it was that fear that drove into light, the existence of the Roppongi Club.

It is unknown how long the club had actually been in existence but it was known that only the elite of the societal elites could afford the club's exorbitant fees. It was also known that the club is a place where those elites went to fulfill their most perverted desires. However, what wasn't known was that, through the use of a special catalyst, those infected with an unnamed retrovirus could develop powers of their own based on their secret desires, fetishes and obsessions. These people were known as euphorics and they were feared much more than the contractors. The reason being that while the contractors usually only used their powers for money or survival, the euphorics used their powers for pleasure. It was around that time that the first whispers of the Sibyl System emerged in Japan and with them came Psycho Pass.

Psycho Pass is a number given to people based on their mental state. This number would tell if a person is more or less likely to commit a crime and is known as a crime coefficient. At the same time, Psycho Pass can be evaluated in varying hues. These hues show when a subject is happy, sad, angry, depressed etc., in relation to time. Someone whose Hue is in top condition will have a colour of pure white. While someone with a bad hue's colours will appear in varying colours until it eventually gets cloudy and turns black. At this time, the system was still in it's testing phases and despite its ability to identify euphorics, it didn't look like it was going to gain any ground because of its inability to read the Psycho Pass of contractors and dolls as anything but zero or pure white. But then, on April 4th, 2004 at 5:09 pm, just when the Sibyl System idea was about to be scrapped, a huge earthquake, rating an 11.4 seismic intensity, devastated tokyo. The quake resulted in 148,000 dead and missing people and caused seventy percent of Tokyo to sink underwater. The cause of the earthquake was officially announced to be the work of a contractor by the name of Havoc but in reality, no one knew what the real cause was.

Shortly after the quake, the world began to see the first signs of what came to be known as Deadmen. The Deadmen are people who have become infected with a parasite known as The Nameless Worm. Once infected, the host gains the ability to control their own blood while its outside of their body. In every recorded instance of a Deadman except one, the external blood manifested itself as some kind of weapon or object with various functions like extendable scythe blades or exploding balls of blood. Originally, the Deadmen were only present in Japan and they tried desperately to round them up into a facility known as Deadman Wonderland. The facility acted as both a jail for the Deadmen and an amusement park. This solution, however, quickly failed. Within twenty years, the Deadmen managed to break out and the facility closed down. As soon as it did, Deadman related incidents began to occur all over the world. Left with no other choice, Japan instituted the Sibyl System and outfitted them with scanners that could detect Lancelnoptchrotron radiation, the unnamed retrovirus and the Nameless Worm.

The Sibyl System completely overhauled law enforcement by replacing police with detectives and enforcers. The enforcers consisted of Deadmen, Euphorics and Contractors who willing acted as the Sibyl System's dogs to hunt down their own kind. In exchange for their services, they are freed from persecution but they have to live in established housing quarters where they are monitored constantly. The detectives are normal humans that basically act as the enforcers' babysitters. They're there to make sure that the enforcers don't run away during a mission and they're given special guns, called dominators, to give them a fighting chance.

It took almost one hundred years for the System to be adopted and applied in every major country and another fifty for a worldwide connection to be made in order to create a global Sibyl System but by that time, the problem had escalated exponentially. Crossbreeds began to slowly appear. The first to appear were called Generation II. Deadmen crossed with Euphorics, Euphorics with Contractors and Contractors with Deadmen. These people were dangerous enough on their own because they were able to use both parent abilities but it didn't stop there. When Generation II began to produce crossbreeds, the world had to face Generation III which consisted of all three mixed together. Then, when people thought it couldn't get worse, a shocking discovery was made.

June 26, 2283. An incident involving enforcers from the New York branch of the American Sibyl System and a Generation II target resulted in the decapitation of an onlooking civilian. This civilian was thought to be dead but, mere seconds after the accident, his head reattached itself and he was walking around once again. He was immediately taken in for questioning but, even after being tortured beyond the point of legality and experimented on to unthinkable degrees, he refused to talk. Ten days after his capture, three more people who exhibited the same abilities broke into the building they were holding him in and broke him out. In the end the only thing they got from the guy was his name. Firo Prochenezo. This marked the rise of the immortals. Though few in number, the immortals were all close knit, operating as a sort of Camorrista family under the name Martillo family. The immortals were especially dangerous because the Sibyl System's scanners had no way of discriminating between them and normal humans but even this monumental discovery wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back. No, what did it is what came next.

Her name was Nona Mardanova. She was the first to exhibit the use of psychokinesis and although this happened back in 2011, the world was so completely obsessed with the eradication of the other superpowered people that the discoveries of Azerbaijani, Dr. Imran Ismailov, including Nona, went unheeded. The fact remains, however, that Dr. Imran Ismailov and his discovery of Nona were the beginning of the end for mankind because, as soon as the information was discovered by Sibyl workers, the PK hunt was on. The idea was to covertly round up and use people with this ability as weapons for Sibyl but the more that Sibyl tried to round them up, the more they seemed to resist. Eventually, the decision was made to go public with the news of PK users and, when they did, they made those people out to be murderers and terrorists. Normal people began to panic and attack known PK users who, at that time, only had weak abilities. Due to the constant state of danger the PK users were placed in, their powers quickly blossomed into a much more destructive force.

Over the next two hundred years, an entirely new Generation emerged as well as new variations to the other two and Sibyl began to hunt not only PK users but all superhumans even more relentlessly all the while, completely unaware that they were bringing about the end of the world.

From this point on, I will be recounting my personal experiences of the Dark Ages so please forgive any lapses in information. As I said before, I will try to be as accurate as possible.


	2. Chapter 1

I was born on July 17th, 2482. My mother was a contractor and my father was a Deadman making me a Generation II, colloquially known as a Contracted Worm. My older brother Alban, on the other hand, was a Generation I. For whatever reason, the Nameless Worm didn't pass into his blood so he was born a contractor. With both my mother and my brother being contractors, I found it difficult to gain affection from either of them. They both did their share in helping me to use my contractor powers but I knew that they only saw it as a means of self preservation. We were always on the run from Sibyl enforcers and detectives and we often found ourselves bouncing around from place to place, commandeering houses as we went. Usually, we were able to stay ahead of them thanks to my mother's power of clairvoyance which let her see six hours into the future but, as I said before, all contractors do an obsessive action as payment for their powers. My mom's payment was cutting out all of one letter from a book and sometimes, completing this action took a long time. During this time, she couldn't use her powers and so that was the time when we were most vulnerable. It was at that time that the enforcers finally caught up to us.

ONE | September 7th, 2489

It was raining that day and I think it was the rain that caused me to slip. I hit the ground hard, scraping the skin off my right knee and left elbow and causing a long streak of blood to stain the ground under me. The pain was intense and, being a seven year old, I wanted to cry out but there was no time for that. Alban hurried back to me and helped me up before continuing to run. Neither of our parents stopped running themselves but, occasionally, our father would look back to make sure we were still there.

We ran into an alley where we ducked behind a large trashcan. I started to breath heavily and loudly but Alban immediately put his hand over my mouth.

"Deep controlled breaths." He whispered before pointing to his face as he took in a deep breath through his nose and exhaled slowly through his mouth. I nodded and tried my best to mimic his technique until footsteps began to echo through the alley. I started to panic and my breathing became more and more erratic and audible. The footsteps suddenly stopped and the alley fell deathly quiet. I suddenly realised what they were doing and I put my hands over my mouth but it was too late. Alban pushed me out from behind the trashcan just as it, along with the ground where we were huddled, split into fourths. If we'd stayed where we were, we all would have been cut in half.

I landed on my back and my brother landed on top of me. His elbow dug into my stomach and I let out a muffled squeal.

"You know kid, if you manage to survive, you should really work on your breathing." The voice came from behind my head and I craned my neck back to see who it was coming from. Through the rain and the tears welling up in my eyes, I was only able to make out a head of orange hair and a devious smile. My brother covered me with his body as the man leaned toward us, his eyes glowing red and his body glowing blue. He stuck his hand out toward us and my brother pressed down on me, trying to protect as much of me as possible but, before the man could do anything, he let out a scream and staggered back a few steps.

"Alban!" My brother and I looked at our dad on the other side of the trashcan. He was standing with his hand outstretched and aimed at the man. On his palm was a long gash and blood slowly oozed out of it.

"Take your brother and run!" He yelled.

"I can't let that happen." The man said as he held up his hand to us.

"Hurry!" my father yelled. "Go!" As he yelled, his blood collected in the palm of his hand and formed a broadsword that shot toward the man. The man's eyes and body began to glow but instead of attacking us, he aimed his hand at the sword which shattered in mid air. My father created two more swords but before I could see him attack, my brother pulled me to my feet, grabbed my wrist and started running.

"Grab my wrist." He said as he dragged me along. "And don't let go no matter what." His eyes and body glowed for a second and then he, along with my arm, disappeared. I tried to look down at my feet but they weren't there. I even tried waving my hand in front of my face but that too, was now invisible. It wasn't the first time I'd seen Alban use his powers but it was the first I'd been invisible myself and not being able to see at least some part of myself caused me to panic.

"Calm down." Alban said, seemingly able to sense my panic. "Try not to think about not being able to see yourself. Focus on something else." We turned a corner suddenly and I lost my footing but Alban hoisted my body up and I managed to stay on my feet. "Stay alert." He said harshly. "We can't afford to stop."

"Sorry." I replied dejectedly just as a blood curdling scream filled the air.

I'd never heard before but I immediately recognized the scream as my mother's and the panic started to return.

"We have to go back!" I screamed. I tried to pull away from my bother but it only made him hold onto my wrist tighter.

"We have to keep moving. " he said insistently but I wouldn't listen.

"That was mom!" I screamed. "That was her scream!" My body was suddenly pulled around another corner and pressed up against the wall. I couldn't see him but I could tell Alban had his face inches from my own.

"I know that was her scream but right now we have to worry about us. Mom and dad can handle themselves. All I need to do is get you to safety." I tried to wriggle free of my brother's grasp but he just pressed harder.

"You don't need to protect me." I said, fighting to hold back tears. "I've got powers too. I can fight!"

"Your power is to make swords but you don't even know how to use them!" I was going to respond but, before I could, the wall broke apart and I fell back. As I fell, I could feel myself slip from Alban's grasp and when I hit the ground I was visible again.

"There you are." A chill went through my spine when I heard the man's voice. "You know, that invisibility thing is really annoying." I scrambled to my feet and spun around. The man was standing with his hand aimed at me. "I wonder where your brother went. Oh well. I guess I'll just start with you." His eyes and body started to glow but before he could attack, my body was pushed to the side. The ground where I was standing was instantly scarred with deep, crisscrossing lines and the man let out a loud groan before aiming his hand at me again.

"Run!" I heard my brother yell. I desperately searched for him but he was still invisible. My body was pushed back again just as deep grooves dug themselves into the ground. "Go!" My brother yelled. I clenched my fist and reluctantly turned and ran back the way we came.


	3. Chapter 2

TWO | September 7th, 2489

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me with my eyes closed tight in order to hold back the tears. I turned corners on instinct and didn't stop until I tripped on something and fell. My face was drenched in a liquid that I thought was water until a metallic taste in my mouth forced my eyes open and I saw that I was lying in a puddle of blood.

A panicked squeal spilled out from within me and I flipped onto my back and scooted back until my hand touched something cold and hard. I slowly lifted it to my face even though my mind screamed out against it. In my hand was a disembodied arm that was covered in blood and had a muddy shoe print staining the back of the hand. I screamed and threw it as the realization that it was that hand that I tripped on set in.

I pulled myself onto my knees and slowly looked around. The entire alley was covered in blood and deep grooves. Random body parts littered the ground and flies and roaches had already begun to gather.

"Its a pretty gruesome sight isn't it?" My heart almost stopped at the sound of the man's voice and I turned around slowly to see that his hand was almost touching my face. He looked around the alley, a pained look staining his face. "They were good fighters." He said as if he were reading their obituary. "Your brother too." He looked down at me as grief pulled the wind from my lungs. His eyes and body started to glow but, before he could attack, he doubled over in pain, clutching his head as a metallic clang rang through the alley.

"Get up." I heard my brother say just before my body was pulled off the ground and yanked forward. I was so surprised that I barely even noticed that I was once again invisible.

"Alban?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah, it's me." He responded immediately. Relief washed over me and the tears I'd been holding back rushed out.

"I thought you were dead." I screamed through loud sobs. "I thought he killed you like he killed mom and dad."

"I know." He said firmly. "And I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you go off by yourself but now's not the time for tears." I snorted loudly and willed myself to stop crying. "I'm gonna need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

"Mhmm" was all I could manage.

We ran nonstop for a long time, the silence only broken by my heavy breathing, until we came to an abandoned building. It was a high rise with twenty five floors. The elevator wasn't working so we took the stairs to the top and hid inside the room at the end of a long hallway.

The room was filled with dust and smelled like mold and dying animals. Spider webs covered everything and frayed, detached wires hung from the ceiling. Alban walked in, pulling me along with him and examined the room before letting go of my hand causing me to became visible again.

"Looks like your hair is long enough now." He said before reappearing. He was sitting on the ground with his back on a square pillar in the middle of the room, facing the row of windows that lined the wall opposite the door. "Come sit down." He forced a smile onto his face and patted the ground between his legs. I obeyed without question and as soon as I did he started to braid my hair.

"Do you like braiding hair?" I asked after a while of sitting in silence.

"No I don't." Alban answered as if he was expecting me to ask. "But paying a price is compulsory. Whether I like it or not, I have to do it after using my powers." My eyes drifted to the floor for a moment before I clapped my hands together. I concentrated hard and my body started to glow blue. "What are you doing?" Alban asked.

"Practicing." I started to slowly pull my hands apart while focusing on my left hand. As my hands separated, a hawkbill machete slid out of my left hand. When the blade had fully appeared, I grabbed the hilt with my right hand and examined it closely. It was the same type of blade that my mother used to fight and looking at it made the image of the blood soaked alley pop into my mind. I felt tears stinging the back of my eyes but I willed them not to come out. Instead, I sighed deeply and pressed my finger on the tip of the blade until blood started to drip to the floor.

"Have you ever seen me pay my price?" I asked Alban as I drew a small spiral in my blood on the blade of the machete.

"This is the first time. Does it have to be on the blade?"

"No it can be on any surface as long as it's in my blood." I put my bleeding finger in my mouth and threw the machete hoping that the blade would plunge into the wall under the window. Instead, it spun in the air and hit the wall on the side of the hilt.

"Looks like you need more practice." Alban said with a insincere chuckle.

"So do you." I said.

"What?"

"You're still terrible with showing emotion. Everything still seems forced and fake." Alban didn't respond. "Why did you save me back there?" I blurted. A weight seemed to lift from my shoulders after asking the question that had been burning inside me.

"Why wouldn't I save you?" Alban asked as if he were trying to convince himself.

"Why would you? You're a contractor and at that time I was just a burden. If you'd left me behind, you would have gotten away without any trouble so why-"

"Because dad told me too." He interjected. "Because I wanted to make sure his dying wish was fulfilled."

"You knew they were gonna-" The word got caught in my throat. "Still though, that goes against what you and mom taught me about contractors. You said that they were emotionless and only cared about self preservation but then you saved me, twice. And that man..." The man's pained face as he looked at the scattered remains of my parents flashed into my mind. "He actually looked sad about killing them."

"Listen," Alban said after a long pause. "I don't really know much about contractors myself. I mean, if we're supposed to be these emotionless monsters, why did mom marry dad?" I didn't have an answer so, out of frustration, I created another machete and as I was drawing the spiral on it, a blue light from the wall reflected in the blade. It grew out of the wall and into an amorphous blue blob with black spots moving around the inside of it.

"What's that?" I asked Alban. He looked over my shoulder, while continuing to braid my hair, and gasped.

"Dolls!" He said. "They're using dolls! I can't believe I forgot about them!"

"HEEEY!" The man's voice suddenly called from outside. My heart pounded against my chest and I started to get up but Alban pulled me back down.

"That's that guy!" I said. "We need to go!"

"If you're in there," The man shouted again, "please come out so I don't have to destroy the entire building."

"I was using my powers for a long time." Alban said frantically. "I still need to do at least four more braids before my price is considered paid."

The ceiling began to break apart and crumble around us followed by the walls starting from the top and slowly coming down.

"Lay down." Alban said as he pushed me onto my side.

"Are you done yet?" I asked through my rising panic as I watched the path of destruction make its way toward us. The windows all shattered at once sending bits of glass flying toward us. I covered my eyes and gritted my teeth as my arms and legs flared with pain. The floor suddenly broke away and I felt my body falling through the air before being jerked to the side and spun around so that I was facing the the ground. I couldn't see him but I felt my brother holding me tight to his own body as we fell.


	4. Chapter 3

THREE | September 7th, 2489

We crashed down hard and Alban let out a pain filled yelp under me before scrambling to his feet and pulling me up with him. A pool of blood began to form on the floor.

"Alban, are you alr-" the wall behind me suddenly collapsed and caused the floor to begin to crumble as well.

"Come on." Alban said as he pulled me out of the room and toward the stairs. He threw open the door to the stairs and practically jumped down. I struggled to keep up with him until, when we reached the fifth floor and the stairs crumbled beneath us. We fell two floors and landed on the landing of the third floor. Before we could continue down, the wall next to me broke apart and the resulting debris blocked the stairs.

"What do we do?" I cried. Even though I couldn't see him, I could tell that Alban still held the calm demeanor he almost always had.

"We're gonna jump." He said.

"What?" In stead of repeating himself, he pulled me over the edge and a yelp escaped me as we hurtled toward the ground.

We landed hard in some bushes and pain rushed through my body but Alban didn't let me stay there. He pulled me up and began to run, once again, pulling me along with him. We stuck mostly to the allies and backstreets and didn't stop until we got to where the alley opened up in the heart of the city.

"Why did we stop?" I asked through rapid breaths that bordered on hyperventilation.

" Look up, around the corner on the building." I obeyed and saw what looked like a spherical mounted surveillance camera. "That's a scanner, like the ones mom and dad told us about. Do you remember what it does?"

"The scanners scan people's psycho pass to make sure that they have a stable mental state. They also scan for the Nameless Worm, the Euphoric Retrovirus and for...The radiation that contractors give off."

"It's called Lancelnoptchrotron radiation, but good. That means that it will sense us even if we're invisible."

"So what are we gonna do?"

"We're going to go to the Public Safety Bureau." My heart sank into my stomach And I clenched my fists.

"We're gonna go to the place where the guy who killed our parents lives? Why would we do that?" I was no longer whispering.

"To become enforcers."

"What!" I was practically yelling.

"It's our only option. Enforcers don't get hunted by the Bureau."

"Yeah but they become slaves to it. Dad always said that the enforcers were nothing but traitors."

"I know but...I'm trying to keep us alive."

"This isn't worth it. Why is it that all you contractors care about is surviving?"

"You're a contractor too."

"No I'm not. I'm a Contracted Worm. I still have emotions and I'd rather die than become an enforcer."

"How would mom and dad feel if they heard you say that? They didn't give up their lives for you to die too." I immediately regretted what I said and hated Alban for using our parents' death against me. "Now, here's what I need you to do: When we get to the building, you'll have to talk to whoever is there. Tell them that we want to become enforcers and be as nice as possible. We'll probably be surrounded as soon as we get there so make sure you put your hands up. Once we're surrounded, they'll be able to detect me. You have to tell them that my price is rather lengthy and you have to have them guarantee our safety while I'm doing it. Can you remember all that?"

"Yes." I said reluctantly.

"Okay. You know which building it is right?"

"It's the tallest one with all the lights in the middle of the city."

"Good. Now, I'm going to let go of your hand. As soon as you step out of this alley, you have to run as fast as you can without stopping. Go straight there. I'll be behind you the entire time." I felt his hand let go of mine and I became visible again. I started toward the opening but stopped before I got there.

"Hey Alban," I said, "do you think mom and dad would do the same thing in this situation?" I didn't wait for an answer before I ran out of the alley.

I ran as fast as I could, dodging the few people that were out this late, until I reached the gates of the Public Safety Bureau. Sirens immediately blared and within an instant, I was surrounded by three foot tall, silver, cylindrical robots with dominators attached to their sides. I immediately put my hands up as Alban instructed.

"W-We wanna become enforcers!" I blurted out to no one in particular. The robots all swept me with a blue light from a slit on the front of their bodies simultaneously.

[LANCELNOPTCHROTRON RADIATION DETECTED, NAMELESS WORM DETECTED] They all screamed at once. [OBTAINING DIRECTIVE...DIRECTIVE: ELIMINATE] The light from their slits changed from blue to red and they all pointed their dominators at me. Before they could fire, however, the gates behind them opened and a man in a suit walked out.

"Code 4276985. Directive override." He said calmly as he walked in between two of the robots.

[CODE CONFIRMED ]The light from the robots changed back to blue but they didn't lower their dominators.

"Good evening." the man said. "My name is Katsume Makishima, head inspector for this branch of the PSB." He looked at me sideways and flashed a sly smile. "And who might you be?"

"Um...M-My name is Tachi. Uh, Tachi Kiyomasa and-"

[SIR. WE HAVE DETECTED ANOTHER ONE] Katsume's smile didn't falter.

"There's someone with you. Why doesn't he show himself?"

"His price takes a long time to pay off so he want's to be guaranteed safety while he does it." Katsume laughed.

"Well, if you are truly here to become enforcers, I can provide protection but if you try anything, I'll kill you both. Understood?" I nodded and, as Alban reappeared to my right, slightly in front of me, I let out a gasp. His back was completely covered in bleeding wounds with pieces of debris still cling to him, his left leg had a steel bracket sticking out of it and his right arm was bent back at a grotesque angle. An image of the pool of blood that started to form in the highrise flashed in my mind and I looked at Alban's feet. Another pool had already begun to form where a trail of blood that extended back the way we came ended.

"And what's your name?" Katsume asked.

"Alban." My brother spat. "Alban Kiyomasa." He turned around slowly before slowly sitting on the ground. Once again, he patted the ground between his legs and forced a smile. "C'mere Tachi." He barely managed. "Let me finish your hair."


End file.
